App Reviews

Can Garmin improve the store review system? I guess there are lots of ways that could be interpreted, so this is what I mean: Bad reviews stick forever. If I get a bad review and I release a new version with a fix, then even if the user gives me a good 5 star review, it'll be for the new version, but the bad review for the previous version is stuck forever, and can't even be deleted by the user. So in a sense bad reviews are "more powerful" than good ones and they decrease the average.

I wonder what is the reason Garmin implemented it the way it is. I can understand that you can only review the current version. That's a good thing, at least I don't get bad reviews for bugs I already fixed. And actually I would be happy if I was able to view my crash reports from ERA Viewer for all versions.... But ok, that's another topic. So why the past versions' reviews count but are immutable? Either they should be mutable or at least deletable so when the developer fixes a bug then he can ask the users to remove the bad reviews about it. After all there are lots of apps with lots of reported bugs for years. So if an active developer fixes a bug why can't the user also remove the bad review?

Or I'll say even more: probably the easiest would be if 1 user could only have 1 review. It could be edited, and when edited the version would be updated to the current version the user has (and yes, it still would be a good idea to allow this when the user has the current latest version installed). This would have an added benefit of removing the possibility of artificially pumping up the average rating by releasing new versions and writing 5 star reviews about it (maybe by a friend)

This comment triggered me posting: https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/connect-iq-web-store/405105/watchfaces-not-more-visible-in-store/1905331#1905331 

  • Just dump the star system because it is impossible to manage in a fair way and protect against abuse. It’s 2025 so loose it.

    I get reviews from angry customers who say it doesn’t have feature XYZ so here is a 1 star review, when I never claimed it had feature XYZ.

    I'm sure we all have stories about it.

    Garmin IQ should use AI to sort the best reviews at the top which is best for everyone. IMHO numbers of downloads is a far better indicator if an App is good. If only the download numbers were meaningly displayed in actual numbers.

  • I agree, that's a good idea! 1, 2 star review should have a comment!